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Monday, May 5, 2014

Car-Sharing, GPS Data Changing Transportation Patterns

As reported by the Daily Bulletin: Why drive a car when you can tap out a ride on your smartphone and
get picked up in minutes. Need to drive? Rent a car by the hour and then
leave it on the street when you’re done with it.

But if you must
own a car, one California automaker is betting it won’t use gasoline.
The company’s sole mission is making the internal combustion engine go
the way of the horse and buggy and is currently working on an
affordable, battery-powered model that travels 245 miles on a single
charge.

These innovative transportation models — being played out
today in the California marketplace by new, successful companies — are
part of what one UCLA urban transportation expert calls “a brave new
world” that puts traditional transportation thinking on its ear.

“Technology is affecting transportation, and we need to be
thinking about that. The change can be tectonic,” said Brian Taylor,
director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA, during a
gathering of 400 city mayors, staffers and experts in Indian Wells on
Thursday and Friday as part of the Southern California Association of
Governments regional conference on mobility, technology and economic
opportunity.

Taylor compared the changes to the placement of
wooden wheels on trolley carts in the 19th century — the beginning of
mass transit that resulted in suburban enclaves around city centers.

“It is an exciting time. It’s like an impressionist painting, you can’t see it up close but only when you step back,” he said.

Emerging
companies include: Lyft, a ride-matching company that has grown from
outlets in 36 cities to 60 cities; Car2go, a rental service accessible
via smartphone app that allows one-way car rentals for as little as a
minute or an hour; Tesla, the all-electric car company started by
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk working on a cheaper model;
Google, which is testing its driverless car for a possible 2017 release;
and Fehr & Peers, a big data gathering firm that uses cellphone
data and Twitter posts to calculate a younger generation’s travel
patterns.

“We all know something this is changing. What is exciting about
this is that this has all come up on its own and we don’t know where it
is headed,” Taylor said after a session on technology and
transportation.

The Obama administration supports the advances in
technology through its Grow America Act, a multi-billion-dollar proposal
that sets aside a minuscule amount, about $108 million a year up to
$113 million a year for four years for technological advances in
transportation.

Assistant Secretary of the Department of
Transportation Greg Winfree said the DOT can’t support private companies
but is making the money available to universities to study people and
goods movement.

Taylor just finished a study examining teenagers and
transportation. Taylor said teenagers don’t plan out trips in advance
like baby boomers but instead make decisions in real time.

“We are
changing the way we behave. But this is how they’ve started out. These
kids have never known a world without mobile technology. That terrifies
transportation planners,” Taylor said with a smile.

For example,
cellular data in downtown Sacramento showed where drivers went to dinner
before the basketball game and where they drove to after the game, said
Ron Milam with Fehr & Peers. And Twitter posts in Seattle helped a
bus agency better adjust routes and service.

“One tweet we got was kind of scary. It was from a man on the bus
who overheard a conversation between a rider getting on the bus and the
driver: ‘Man on my bus: ‘I’m broke. I just got out of jail. Can I get a
ride.’ Bus driver: ‘Sure.’ Me: So scared.” Milam said the bus company
was made aware of the tweet as part of the survey information it
commissioned from his firm.

Big data can be used to help cities
and transit agencies better plan new bus and rail service as well as new
stadiums. The data is cheap and available, he said.

Milham was asked if personalized data from a car’s dashboard computer or a cellphone reveals a person’s identity.

“It
is all anonymized,” he said. “We don’t know who the data is associated
with. It is aggregated in quite a large geographic area so we don’t know
where a person lives.”

The cities of Pasadena and San Diego are
cooperating with a freeway and roadway data program sponsored by the
Department of Transportation, Winfree said. One project, the Integrated
Corridor Management System, will give drivers on the 210 Freeway access
to weather and real-time traffic patterns on their smartphones. The
project has not yet been completed.

Lyft, a 2-year-old company that serves area including Los Angeles
and the Inland Empire, matches passengers needing a ride to drivers
with extra seats using a smartphone app. Drivers are given background
checks and must pass scrutiny to join the program, said Emily Castor,
Lyft director of community relations who spoke at the conference.

Mostly
the drivers are using their four- or five-seater car as a money-making
tool by giving rides. But Castor said the company is beginning to see
drivers give rides as part of their daily routine.

Dan Sturges, a transportation designer for the private firm Team
Red US, said the bundling of car-sharing and matching services could be
enough for a couple or family to sell their second car. The result would
be an economic saving of $4,000 a year, plus less emissions released
into the air.

Castor estimated that 80 percent of seats on the road go empty every day.

“Wouldn't it be amazing to use technology to fill those seats?” she asked the audience.

Delegates
from smaller cities in Los Angeles County said car-sharing and car-pool
matching services work better in more dense, urban areas. “It seems
like more populated cities, more urbanized cities are doing it ...
rather than outlying cities,” said Diamond Bar Mayor Carol Herrera, a
SCAG member.

Castor disagreed, saying Lyft has been successful in sprawling exurbs in Orange County and the Inland Empire.

“Put
car-sharing in the neighborhood and near work centers and with public
transit, you create a bundle. So you don’t need a second car,” Sturges
said.

Planners like Sturges and Milam are looking at traffic
gridlock in new ways. Many say building new freeways is no longer a
possibility. And that building subways under Los Angeles is expensive.

But
social engineering — using smartphone and big data — can be an
effective traffic-fighting tool and one that is becoming more
acceptable.

“We are not going to solve these problems by working the way we
have the last 20 years. We will solve these problems by working in a new
way and by being inventive,” Sturges said, to a round of applause.

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About Me

I have more than 25 years of experience in development, design, and mobile communications products and technology. I also enjoy skiing, hiking, scuba, tennis, reading, traveling, foreign languages, and painting. I'm an active member of the National Ski Patrol (NSP) and volunteer my time at either Loveland Ski resort, or Ski Cooper.